Not Applicable.
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to vehicle wheel alignment systems and, more particularly, to image sensors and processors that are used to determine the angles of vehicle wheels and the distances between vehicle wheels.
2. Related Art
Aligning vehicle wheels within specific tolerances is important for optimal control of the vehicle and for consistent wear of the tires. Alignment is performed primarily by adjusting camber, caster, toe, and steering axis inclination. As part of calculating the alignment angles for the vehicle, the angles of the wheels must be determined. The angles can be determined relative to an external reference, such as found in machine vision systems, or relative to the other wheels, such as found in wheel-mounted systems. It is known that these angles can be measured using an electro-optical transducer that incorporates a solid state detector array. In the case of machine vision systems, the detector array may have multiple columns and rows forming an area to capture a two-dimensional image, and in the case of wheel-mounted systems, the detector array may only need to be linear, having a single row with as few as two receptor elements. In either case, the image on the detector must be analyzed meticulously so that accurate alignment angles can be calculated.
Wheel-mounted alignment systems typically have sensor heads on each wheel of the vehicle, and each sensor head has an emitter and a receiver that works in combination with at least one other sensor head along the vehicle""s sides and across the vehicle. The receiver units may have photodiodes as set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 4,302,104 or a charge coupled device (CCD) as set forth in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,018,853 and 5,519,489, and the emitter units may have a single source as in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,302,104 and 5,018,853 or multiple sources as in U.S. Pat. No. 5,488,471. Angles and distances are calculated according to the positions of the spots or lines that are detected by the linear arrays.
Machine vision alignment systems typically use a solid state camera with an array detector mounted away from the vehicle to obtain an image of a wheel mounted target. The target incorporates an accurately reproduced pattern that has known control features, as set forth in U.S. application Ser. No. 08/781,284 filed Jan. 10, 1997. The position of the features in the image are found and the orientation of the wheel can be calculated by well known algorithms. Some machine vision systems do not use a predefined target but identify particular geometric features on the wheel or tire, such as projected light stripes or the circular wheel rim, and use the distortion of the geometry to determine positions and orientations.
In wheel alignment systems, the imaging requirements are somewhat different than a standard camera. Very precise measurements must be made at a rate of at least 2 Hz. on static or very nearly static scenes. This requires stable, low-noise images that have excellent focus and contrast. The accuracy of the measurement depends on the precision with which edges, centroids, corners, lines or boundaries can be determined. Methods for analyzing the image must take into account the possible sources of inaccuracy and compensate for them. To obtain these images, current wheel alignment systems use analog receivers that cannot be integrated onto an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) with the image processor or the analog to digital converter.
CCD technology has become the dominant method for constructing the solid state receiver arrays. While many alignment systems have been made using CCD elements, the detector has some characteristics that are not ideal for a robust economical product. The CCD element is an expensive component that requires additional support electronics to create a digital output for processing or imaging. It requires a number of timing and control signals as inputs, many of which require different voltages. Supply voltages, clock phases and control signals must be carefully controlled so that extraneous electrical noise is not introduced into the system. The analog output of the CCD element must be converted to a digital format using a separate amplifier and an analog-to-digital converter.
The pixel structure of a CCD element also makes it susceptible to blooming. When light falls on each pixel, photons are converted to electrons which accumulate in the active area of the pixel. If the light is intense or the amount of time the electrons are allowed to accumulate is long, the capacity of the pixel structure to hold the charge will be exceeded. The charge then spills into adjacent pixels and blooming occurs. Most CCD elements have some form of anti-blooming control which minimizes the problem, but it cannot be fully prevented.
There are essentially three different types of CCD structures which may be used in wheel alignment systems, and each type has particular disadvantages. The interline transfer CCD structure has alternating rows or columns of pixels and collectors resulting in a low fill factor and making it susceptible to distortion. Between each row or column of pixels is a row or column for shifting the pixel charge, thereby reducing the photosensitive area to a small percentage of the sensor""s total area. This low fill factor may distort intensity profiles, thereby increasing the possibility in machine vision systems that edges and centroids of objects in the image are improperly located. The full frame CCD structure has a high fill factor but requires an external shutter to control the integration time of the device. The extra cost and complexity of the shutter is detrimental for an economical system. A frame transfer CCD structure does not require a shutter and can have very high fill factors but can be susceptible to creating image smear since the exposure is controlled by shifting the entire image into a light protected storage area after the integration time period has elapsed. The shifting process takes place one line at a time so the last line into storage has been shifted through every other line position on the image. The shift is not instantaneous so some new charge is collected with every shift until the light protected area is reached. This smear effect is not usually a problem if the image transfer time is a small fraction of the total integration time. Where system cost is an issue, high frame rates are not possible and the effects of smear must be considered.
Additionally, with all CCD elements, it is not possible to address an individual pixel for read out. If the object of interest only occupies a small portion of the image, it is necessary to read out the entire image before the object can be analyzed. The lack of sub-array read out capability imposes a speed penalty on the system.
As evident from the above discussion, the use of a CCD for an image sensor puts some burdens on the wheel alignment system in terms of electronic design considerations. The result of these restrictions is increased system cost and loss of flexibility.
The present invention was developed to address these problems. Among the objects and features of the present invention is an improved sensor for measuring angles and distances in wheel-mounted alignment systems and positions and orientations in machine vision alignment systems.
A second object of the present invention is to provide such a sensor that it is fabricated by the same process that is used for other common electronic components such as DRAM circuits, and can therefore process images only in a particular region of interest, readout the pixels in a non-destructive or refreshing mode, reduce the time required to process detected images, and integrate additional support electronics into a single, less-expensive integrated circuit package and thereby eliminate any need for multiple input supply voltages.
A third object of the present invention is to provide such a sensor that increases the precision of the detected image by resisting blooming and eliminating smearing.
In one aspect of the present invention, an image sensor for a wheel alignment system includes an integrated circuit having a detector array and an interface bus for communications between the integrated circuit and a computer system. The detector array operates according to an image sensor controller, also formed on the integrated circuit, that communicates with the detector across an internal bus and directs input/output communications for the integrated circuit.
In a second aspect of the present invention, a method of reducing cycle time in processed images that are used in a vehicle wheel alignment system includes the steps of receiving an image on a detector array and processing the image in its entirety, identifying a region of interest on the detector array, limiting the sensor read out on subsequent images to only the region of interest, and calculating vehicle wheel alignment based on the image in the region of interest.